Lyrics of Hurt
by TinyTeacupPip
Summary: Optimus has always wished to bring Megatron back to his senses and end the war but, with four million years of war and conflict that has waged between the two fractions, he has slowly been loosing hope of ever achieving true peace between Autobots and Decepticons. Megatron has seemed to find that leading his Decepticons against the Autobots has be come tedious, even Starscream's sc
1. A Slight Screw-up

The sounds of coffee brewing was the first thing Lyric heard that morning, causing her to reluctantly peel her ice blue eyes away from the invention at hand. It had started smoking in the middle of the night, scaring her and forcing her to re-evaluate the entire system for the rest of the night.

"Stupid hunk of metal!" She hissed at the machine as she took a swipe at it with her wrench. The wrench clanked off of the invention and caused it to start smoking and hissing again. Lyric threw the wrench at the wall of her shop in frustration before slumping in her chair tiredly. The heavier footsteps of her older sister, Amber, echoed in the shop as she walked in with two mugs of coffee and her laptop balanced precariously on her arm. Her whiskey colored eyes were glued to the computer screen as she sat down one mug on the table next to Lyric's arm before collapsing into the seat next to her younger sister.

"Mmm...I assume you've been here all night again." Amber spoke up in an attempt to start a conversation. Lyric let out a pathetic groan as her head met the table, a loud thunk of skin and bone hitting wood following close behind. Amber flinched slightly at the violent abuse her sister was putting herself through willingly.

"Good thing you have a hard head," The amber haired woman said before taking another sip of her espresso, kicking her legs up and resting her sneakers on the table. "Isn't that supposed ta kill brain cells?" She finished and Lyric groaned in emotional agony before lifting her head back up marginally.

"What brain cells?" Lyric breathed as she brushed her platinum-blonde hair out of her face; lips puckered up in a pout. Amber snorted in amusement at the typical Lyric look before her eyes widened comically and she nearly did a spit take, staring at her laptop screen.

"H-Holy shit sticks!" Amber coughed out as she set her mug down roughly and began typing frantically, fingers dancing with unbelievable grace and speed across the keyboard. Lyric cocked her head to one side in confusion as she observed her sister sit up straight and lean forward, her nose almost touching the screen in disbelief. She scooted her chair next to the older woman as she focused on the laptop screen, packets of information and files popping up and cluttering the screen.

"What the hell Amber? Are you on some conspiracy web site?" Lyric asked in surprise as Amber huffed in laughter.

"Nope." She responded simply before she sat back laughing. "Government. Pentagon. White House. One of the three." She confirmed with a pit forming in her stomach. Lyric actually did a spit take, the mocha getting all over her shirt and hand as she tried to prevent the accident from happening.

"D-Did you just hack into the Government database by **accident**!?" She sputtered and Amber had the gall to look offended at her statement.

"Lyric! How dare you accuse me of hacking into the Government's database by accident!" The amber haired woman gasped before clicking on a particular file, bringing up an amateur video.

"This looks interesting." She hummed to herself before playing the video, audio on low so it wouldn't blow their ears out with the volume.

 _"You destroy everything you touch, Megatron!"_ The deep baritone voice yelled as the giant blue, red, and silver robot grappled against the larger grey and black robot.

 _"That's because everything I touch is food for my hunger. My hunger for power!_ " The larger bot, Megatron apparently, laughed coldly as he practically threw the other bot over his shoulder and kicked him in the face, cracking and bending the face mask of the other. Both woman cringed at the blow before the bot managed to stumble back to his feet.

 _"No! I am going to end your hunger once and for all._ " The mystery bot cried while he brought his blue fist up to greet Megatron's head. Amber yelled in outrage while Lyric immediately cheered in obvious relief. The shaky video ended with the mystery bot throwing Megatron into an already ruined building but Amber swiftly rewound and paused the video before magnifying it as she squinted at the mystery bots' box like shoulder.

"Hey Lyric do you see that symbol? The one on his shoulder?" Amber asked as she shifted in her seat uncomfortably. It was vaguely familiar to her some how but she couldn't place why. Lyric shifted closer to the computer screen before nodding. She pulled the silver chain of her necklace out of where it was kept hidden under her shirt.

"Yeah it does. It's the same ones that Dad gave us before he was KIA." She muttered as she glanced down at the cherished metal pendent. Hers had always been more like a sad cartoonish face while Amber's choker pendent was more...evil looking? Lyric wasn't quite sure how to put it into words that seemed manageable. The heavy silence that fell between the girls was filled with regret and old memories that they couldn't bring themselves to dwell on just yet. The harsh knocking on the door pulled them both out of their silent reverie and Lyric made to get up before Amber grabbed her wrist to keep her in place. Her eyes shimmered and she looked emotionally exhausted from the brief moment they had as a family unit.

"Just wanted to say um," She started hesitantly before steeling herself and forging ahead now that she was already committed to it. The rapping became more insistent and louder and Lyric struggled to hear her sister's next words over the mildly annoying sound.

"Dad would be proud of you." She breathed before letting go of Lyrics' wrist and swiveling herself back to face her computer once more to pretend she hadn't said something earth shattering to her younger sister. Lyric blinked back the tears and gave Amber a watery smile she knew that her sister could see in the reflection of the dark laptop screen before she left to go answer the door, which had gone suspiciously quiet during their exchange.

"I think your father would be disappointed in you Amber." The gruff voice said and both woman jumped in shock and fear. He took a step closer and Amber slammed the laptop shut before grabbing Lyric and pulling her behind her protectively. He was clearly with the military and Amber recognized the familiar face.

"Oh Major William Lennox. Here for a pleasant visit?" She asked, her voice dripping in venom and sarcasm. The white military man frowned deeply before responding to Amber's question.

"Not pleasant at all considering I'm here to arrest you and your sister." He responded as two more military men rushed in behind him, their guns raised and at the ready. Amber stepped in front of Lyric further, pushing her sister behind her until she was as hidden from them as possible.

"Back off Lennox." She growled darkly as her eyes flickered back and forth between the three men and their weapons. The two woman had been living on their own long enough that Amber had learned to brawl and fight over the years. She often went to illegal fight clubs to make extra money and she had no issue fighting the military men in front of them. Lyric put a hand on her sister's shoulder and Amber looked back at her in worry and fear before letting out a defeated sigh while she raised her hands up in surrender.

"Amber Cressida Johnson. Age 24. Born July 18th. Biological daughter of Andrew and Melissa Johnson." The White and black robot started as he relaid the information to his leader and their security officer in the Prime's office.

"Her criminal record starts off from when she was 11 and she hacked into her school's grade book to change her sister's grade from a C to an A. Of course it was later proven that the teacher had intentionally given her the C when she had earned the A." He continued with a sigh as Red Alert rolled his optics.

"So a criminal with a conscious. She's still a criminal." He said in a huff as Prime raised his hand to quiet his security chief.

"What about her sister?" He asked Prowl seriously and Prowl tapped the holopad, bringing up another file.

"Lyric Dream Hall. Age 22. Born December 4th. Biologically Nathan and Amelia Hall were her parents however her Foster parents were Andrew and Melissa Johnson." He recited blandly and Jazz looked up in interest.

"So they aren't blood related?" He asked in search of confirmation and Prowl nodded stiffly before continuing on, ignoring the interruption.

"She's intelligent if these scores on her IQ are reputable and to be trusted. She's also an inventor and artist." He finished up and Red Alert's optic ridge, the human equivalent of an eyebrow, raised in a questioning way as something clicked in his processor.

"Wait...Amelia Hall and Andrew Johnson..." He hummed to himself as Prime turned his helm to gaze at his security chief. "I know those names. Andrew Johnson was a solider positioned here under Major Lennox's orders. Bright young man with amber colored eyes. He was closest to Ironhide and Sideswipe if I recall correctly. And Amelia Hall," He paused before returning Prime's gaze.

"Wasn't she that human medic and mechanic? The one that helped Ratchet in and out of the field?" He asked before Prowl began searching through the files of everybody on base. Optimus thought it over before he recognized the name and description. Those two had saved so many Autobot lives since the war had been brought to earth. She had been stubborn and brave, easily matching Ratchet's grumpiness with her own sass and sarcasm. Suddenly the door opened to reveal a meek looking Bluestreak, something he normally wasn't.

"Um, Major Lennox is here and he brought the-" He started before another voice interrupted his rudely.

"Hey Leer do you feel that temp drop?"

"Um no?"

"Are you certain because I'm pretty sure we're in the presence of the devil." The voice snarked, being loud and obvious on purpose as two woman were escorted in behind Lennox, who looked like he had a raging headache and was moments away from punching somebody. That was a rare look for the Major. Every stare was directed towards the two woman as they stopped in front of the table, allowing the first woman to scoff and shake her head at the others expression.

"Honestly I think I want to take my chances with Jaxx than be stuck here where everybody has a stick up their asses." Amber said, venom dripping from her voice before she turned and glared brazenly and directly at Optimus Prime. Her sister groaned loudly as she face palmed, annoyed with Amber starting up shit once more.


	2. Keta

_**Keta /KAY-tah/  
n. an image that inexplicably leaps back into your mind from the distant past. - From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows**_

* * *

"Lyric come on, you can't be serious!" Amber cried as she paced back and forth across the room nervously. The platinum-blonde lifted her head up from her hand and gave her a deadpan stare.

"Dead." She said blandly before she returned to picking at the notches in the table mindlessly.

"Dad told you not to let your mouth overload your ass." Amber opened her mouth to protest before she swiftly shut it again. She returned to pacing and wearing a hole into the cold concrete floor while Lyric continued to suffer from an extreme case of boredom.

"It's not my fault they have Gameboy level security." Amber stated. "They were practically begging to be hacked. They should be thankful it was me and not some hardcore hacker." Lyric snorted unattractively in amusement at her older sister.

"So what does that make you?"

"A Recreational hacker." Amber responded surely and Lyric attempted to stifle her laughter, only to snort unattractively before bursting into laughter, momentarily forgetting the situation they were in, at her sister's strange humor. The rare sisterly moment was shattered when the door to the room they were being housed in swung open. The very muscular, tall, and scarred man was a stark contrast to the tiny and petite girl by his side. Amber's smile and lightened mood vanished instantly and she frowned while eyeing the newcomers suspiciously. Her interest and attention was trained solely on the man. His tan skin was scarred, the most notable one crossing over one of his eyes, which were a blue so bright they almost seemed to glow. His messy black hair was a striking contrast to his eyes, but paired nicely with the red sleeveless shirt, black pants, and combat boots. To Amber...this was a threat. The tiny girl couldn't possibly pose a threat herself, at least not a physical one that Amber could evaluate. She had mousy brown hair, the ends dip dyed in a fade and soft pink, that was pulled up into a messy bun. Her piercing gray eyes seemed to look through Amber and into her soul. Her pale skin was covered in freckles and offset the green blouse and light blue bell bottoms. The thick framed glasses sat perched on her face precariously.

"Hello Miss Johnson, Miss Hall." She greeted cheerfully while the man crossed his arms over his chest without saying a word. "I'm Clover Anderson, Human Liaison for the Autobots." She formally introduced herself and Amber raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"How old are you short stack?" She questioned, now looking Clover up and down with a critical and judging eye. Clover took a deep breath as she frowned, rearranging the stack of papers in her arms before taking a seat at the table, across from Lyric.

"Seventeen. I graduated College recently." She answered tiredly, clearly hating the question. Lyric shot Amber a look and Amber merely shrugged before moving to stand behind her sister at the same time man moved to stand protectively behind Clover.

"Anyways, I've been instructed to give you a run down of how our Base runs and then you two will meet your assigned Guardians." Clover explained professionally before turning her gaze to Amber.

"Lennox specifically requested to have you train with the solider's while Chief wants you to work with Red Alert on our security." She explained to the unimpressed woman.

"I'm just bursting from the seams with excitement." Amber responded sarcastically and that seemed to cause Clover to give a slight smile.

"Lyric you'll be working with Wheeljack and our CMO Ratchet but we don't have a Guardian assigned to you yet." Clover finished, already aware how anxious the two woman were to meet the Autobots.

"Who's Scarface over there?" Amber butted in while motioning to the man behind the girl.

"Every Autobot has, what we call, a Holoform." She stated easily, spotting Lyric as her eyes sparkled with barely concealed fascination. "Think of it as a hologram but instead it's solid and able to interact with the world around it. Like a human, each Holoform is individualized and unique to the Bot. It's a way for them to blend into populated areas and interact with us on our level." Clover explained, captivating Lyric as the platinum-blonde woman leaned forward in her seat.

"This grumpy bastard," Clover started as she smacked the man's arm happily. "Is our Weapons Specialist Ironhide." Amber perked up at the mention of weapons. A special kind of smile twisted her features.

"Oh yes," She laughed. "Important question Scarface. Knives or guns?" Amber questioned and Ironhide scoffed at her.

"Guns." He answered in a gravelly voice and Amber cheered before she was cut off suddenly at the door swinging open once more. Another man entered, his messy, short hair was a stunning blue-black, the blue looking more navy and prominent. His jacket was cherry red and navy blue, the shirt underneath it a white-silver. His blue jeans were extremely faded and had an almost cowboy feel to them, the ends tucked neatly into his combat boots. Clover looked surprised to see the newcomer before she managed to recover.

"Chief! I thought you said wouldn't be able to make it?" She stated in confusion as the newcomer gave the teen a reassuring smile that said everything was alright.

"I didn't believe I would but it seems as if our other Liaison has yet to arrive." He answered, causing Clover to roll her eyes in disgust.

"Of course he's late to his own meeting." She sighed in exasperation while angrily reorganizing her papers once more.

"Twat would be late to his own funeral." Clover muttered under her breath, making Ironhide chuckle deeply and 'Chief' gave them both a disappointed but equally frustrated look.

"Who are we talking shit about and can I join in?" Amber butted in, causing Lyric to groan in embarrassment. Her cheeks turned pink and she hid her head in her arms.

"The other human liaison. The Government wasn't all that happy about me being liaison so they assigned him to work with me." Clover explained and Ironhide scoffed, letting the girls know how impressed he was with the other liaison.

"Maxwell don't do more 'n piss 'n moan." He added on, Chief giving him a reproachful gaze before the trigger happy man backed off. Clover sighed again and Amber's eye visibly twitched in annoyance at the sound the younger woman had over used. Optimus watched Lyric quietly. When he had first walked into the room he had almost believed that the platinum-blonde girl was Amelia. Except her eyes; sapphire blue, unlike her mothers. Amelia had had luminous gray eyes. A tiny flash of silver caught his attention and his optics wandered down to the metallic Autobot pendant hanging around her neck. Johnson's doing. He was almost sure of it. The soldier always talked about how his daughters were much like the bots and cons. Prime shook himself mentally as the door to the room flew open and in came Liaison Maxwell accompanied by an older man. Both woman stared at the new men in front of them. Amber immediately puffed out her chest and stood straight, unfolding her full height as she pulled back Lyric's chair, swiftly stepping in front of the younger woman. Her body screamed, _**protect!**_ Lyric peered out from behind her leg quietly, suddenly shying away into a meek shell that didn't correctly portray the person she was only moments ago.

"Dodger." Came the growl from behind clenched teeth as the older man looked Amber up and down scathingly.

"Ms. Johnson." He spat back in disgust before his eyes trailed down to Lyric. "And Ms. Hall."

"I'm surprised they employed a rat like you after you got your ass handed to you by a sixteen year old." Was the reply he received. Ironhide, Clover, and Prime exchanged looks with each other, confused as to what was going on. Dodger leaned forward, eyes glittering in discontent and barely concealed anger.

"Glad to see nothing has changed in the eight years since I last saw you both." He said with a nasty smirk on his face. Amber moved to wipe that grin off his face before Lyric jumped up and grabbed her arm, stopping her with a single look. Amber backed off and instead glared hard at Dodger with all the loathing she could muster. Maxwell looked to Clover with just as much disdain before taking a seat next to her. The animosity was palpable.

"I advise placing them under the Government's witness protection program...separated from each other." Maxwell said. The response was immediate and overwhelming. Clover turned to pin the man with a disgusted look sprawled across her face, Ironhide looking just as pissed off. Amber had jumped up out of her seat in outrage, cheeks turning red as she yelled loudly at both Maxwell and Dodger. Lyric had also jumped out of her seat, latching onto both of Amber's arms, straining to prevent her sister from punching the men in the face.

"Enough!" Prime's voice boomed out above the noise and silence greeted his words. Maxwell sat, undisturbed by the events that transpired around him.

"We do not need a 2nd generation of-"

"2nd generation!?" Lyric interrupted, a look in her eyes that immediately had Amber sitting down in the chair previously occupied by her sister. Maxwell looked at her in obvious disgust. She hardly even acknowledged the look, something that seemed very much unlike the girl they had encountered just mere moments ago. The once warm sapphire blue eyes turned cold and hard, surprising everyone in the room except Amber. Lyric stayed standing but stood up straight, turning the previously shorter woman into a woman of almost equal height to Amber.

"Saying 2nd generation implies that there was a 1st generation." She started sharply. "Of course Amber's father worked as a solider but his work was classified and, judging by Dodger here and both of our pendants...he worked for you. Not including that Lennox is familiar with Amber." Lyric was hitting the nail on the head but she was far from finished. "However you weren't just implying Amber or you would have said so instead of 2nd generation which is curious...unless you were referring to me." Amber knew this routine all too well but stopping her sister was pointless. Besides...she wanted information on what happened to her own dad so stopping her wasn't on the list at all.

"As Dodger likes to point out I'm an orphan. I was adopted by Amber and her family when I was four. Four days before that my father was killed in what I was told was a car accident. My mother was alive and well and should have taken care of me but instead I was left to another family. My father didn't work for the Government or you but my mother did" Her eyes swept over the people in front of her critically before she pulled up another seat and sat down, placing her elbows on the table and folding her hands neatly under her chin.

"So tell me," Lyric finished darkly. "How do you know my mother?" There was nothing but silence for a long while before Amber rolled her eyes in disgust. It was Optimus who decided to speak first.

"Amber Johnson and Lyric Hall are officially under the protection of the Autobots." Prime spoke sternly as he turned to pin Maxwell and Dodger with a glare.

"Glad we could come to a conclusion so quickly!" Lyric said in false cheeriness, worrying Amber; though she would never show it to the outside world.


End file.
